Tuesday, August 7, 2007

The Comfort Machine

This is a very weird, but fantastic sounding thing I saw on Culture Northern Ireland. Basically there's a machine called The Comfort XxL, which is a comforting machine! It's actually part of an international art project by Jennifer Baumeister.

Baumeister asks people from different origins, age groups and genders to say comforting words into a camera. These clips are then made accessible through a machine, kitted out like an 1980s gambling machine. The person who needs comfort can then press a button, selecting a female, male or children's voice. A random clip giving comfort is shown.